Please see this comprehensive list of resources for families.
Digital Resources:
- Our Digital Collections have wonderful resources for children, including eBooks, eAudiobooks, streaming videos, online math lessons, and more.
- Our Research Databases have many resources designed for children or teens, as well as online newspaper access.
Home Learning Resources – Elementary School:
- Interactive Lessons from PBS Learning Media
- WGBH Distance Learning Center
- Scholastic Learn from Home: Lessons and activities designed to continue education while school is not in session.
- PBS Kids: Educational games and activities.
- Hour of Code: Games and activities designed to teach children coding skills.
- Story Preservation Initiative: Selection of audio recorded stories from master story tellers. The K-3 Storytelling Learning Lab has educational stories for kids.
- BreakoutEDU Fun@Home: A collection of digital learning games for students of all ages.
- EdHelper Printable Learning Workbooks: Free printable math workbooks for children.
Home Learning Resources – Middle School:
- Interactive Lessons from PBS Learning Media.
- WGBH Distance Learning Center
- Scholastic Learn at Home: Lessons and activities designed to continue education while school is not in session.
- Hour of Code: Games and activities designed to teach children coding skills.
- BreakoutEDU Fun@Home: A collection of digital learning games for students of all ages.
- Hippo Campus: Free learning videos on a wide variety of subjects, geared towards students in middle school, high school, and college.
Home Learning Resources – High School:
- Interactive Lessons from PBS Learning Media.
- WGBH Distance Learning Center
- BreakoutEDU Fun@Home: A collection of digital learning games for students of all ages.
- Hippo Campus: Free learning videos on a wide variety of subjects, geared towards students in middle school, high school, and college.
- ChemMatters Online: Online chemistry lessons.
- iCivics: Free online civics lessons. Founded by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
Home Learning Resources – Adults: These are free college level classes open to anyone.
- Carnegie Melon Open Learning: https://oli.cmu.edu/students/
- Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/
- EDX: https://www.edx.org/
- Open Learn: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/
- Several Colleges also offer free courses, but you need to dig through their catalog of paid courses to find them:
- Stanford online: https://online.stanford.edu/
- MIT Open Courseware: https://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm
- Harvard Online: https://online-learning.harvard.edu/
Explaining COVID-19 to Kids:
- Ready.gov – Helping Children Cope: https://www.ready.gov/helping-children- cope
- Talking to Children about Coronavirus – a Parent Resource: https://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/NASN/3870c72d-fff9-4ed7-833f- 215de278d256/UploadedImages/PDFs/02292020_NASP_NASN_COVID- 19_parent_handout.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0v5QlXPfl2D3xrmL1uqiZyYpA8iAg6mxNiBH NdLf7O9vjX8yrSCsY3j5k
- Just for Kids: A Comic Explaining the New Coronavirus: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/02/28/809580453/just-for-kids- a-comic-exploring-the-new-coronavirus
- Parent/Caregiver Guide to Helping Families Cope with the Coronavirus Disease: https://www.nctsn.org/resources/parent-caregiver-guide-to-helping- families-cope-with-the-coronavirus-disease-2019
Supporting and Entertaining Teens:
- 8 Ways to Help Teens Cope with Social Distancing Blues
- Summer 2020 Can Still Be the Best Yet for Teens and Tweens
- Staying Active While Social Distancing: Questions and Answers
- 30 Things to Do While Social Distancing During the Coronavirus Pandemic
- 50 Therapeutic Journal Prompts for Teens and Adults
- 6 Great Websites for Teen Writers
Virtual Author Events and Read-alouds
- Grace Lin hosts a new podcast called Kids Ask Authors, where she and a guest author answer questions submitted by young readers. At the end of each episode, they feature audio recordings of kids reading their own
- Kate Messner has a comprehensive collection of resources on her website, including writing prompts, read-aloud videos from many popular authors, and sneak peeks at upcoming books.
- Storyline Online is a video series hosted by the SAG-AFTRA Foundation featuring favorite actors and other celebrities reading popular children’s books.
- Story Time from Space, a project of the Global Space Education Foundation, sends children’s books to astronauts so they can record themselves reading aloud–from space! Astronauts also demonstrate science concepts from space in special Science Time videos.
- You can find more children’s author resources in this helpful round-up from the School Library Journal!
Cooking Classes for Kids:
- America’s Test Kitchen Kids: https://www.americastestkitchen.com/kids/home
Online Entertainment:
- Authors Everywhere: A YouTube Channel featuring readings and activities created by children’s book authors and illustrators: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCowhHSUaWp3KJDcuI0nR0vw?view_as=su bscriber
Educational Online Games:
- Springfield Library Recommended Games Page – A range of fun and educational games for kids
- Starfall -Free educational games and videos for children
- Funbrain.com – Educational games, videos, and books for pre-K–grade 8.
- NASA Science for Kids – Explore space and earth with a variety of game and activity suggestions online and at home.
Other Children’s Literary Resources:
- Authors Everywhere – This is a YouTube Channel created and run by children’s book writers and illustrators. On this channel, you’ll find workshops, readings, activities, art projects, writing games, writing advice, and more. We hope that we can offer you some fun, some distraction, and a creative outlet for any feelings that might come up during this time.
- Story Preservation Initiative – You’ll find a selection of audio stories from three master storytellers on the K-3 Storytelling Learning Lab, found at www.storypreservation.org To access click K-3 Learning Lab on blue banner. A one-time registration is required and then click on “storytellers” and listen and enjoy at no cost.
- KidLit Tv – Explore and enjoy a collection of children’s authors and illustrators reading out loud.
- Authors/Illustrators Sharing Resources – This is a library of resources for kids, families, teachers, and librarians to make sure that reading & learning can happen anywhere this spring. You’ll find a growing collection of resources that include everything from first-chapter and picture book read-alouds (shared with permission from publishers!) to drawing and writing mini-lessons. Be sure to check back often, as new resources will be added every day.
- HarperKids Storytime Read Alouds – We’re HarperCollins Children’s Books and we’re all about stories that young minds never forget. Whether for preschooler, tweens or teens, we’re home to the likes of Shel Silverstein, C.S. Lewis, Maurice Sendak, Beverly Cleary, Neil Gaiman, The Berenstain Bears, Fancy Nancy, Divergent series, The Selection series, Red Queen series and many more.
- Story Time From Space – Astronauts from the International Space Station read children’s books in outer space for children on earth to listen to. They have science videos that compliment the books.
- International Children’s Digital Library – ICDL is a nonprofit organization that provides access to the best children’s books of their culture, and cultures around the world regardless of where they live. There are over 4,000 titles in 59 languages to choose from that you can read to your children.
- Phone-a-Story by Denver Public Library – Call 720-865-8500 and listen to stories, songs and rhymes in English, Spanish, Amharic and Vietnamese.
- Physics Central Comic Books – PhysicsCentral, a web site run by The American Physical Society (an organization representing 48,000 physicists), has created a series of comic books designed to get kids excited about physics.
Podcasts for Kids:
- Grim, Grimmer, Grimmest – (60 Days Free on Pinna.fm) A wildly enchanting original podcast series from Adam Gidwitz, bestselling author of A TALE DARK AND GRIMM. Weaving in and out of a classroom full of witty grade-schoolers and a weird world full of curious creatures and mischievous foes, each episode features a Grimm fairy tale retold with a fresh and surprising flourish. Join in as the students anticipate plot twists and question the logic of these very Grimm tales.
- Storytime Seedlings – Provided by the Santa Clara County Library District, this podcast features “books, fingerplays, rhymes, stories and songs for a screen-free storytime experience, anytime.”
- Sesame Street Podcast – “Featuring the furry and loveable Muppets of Sesame Street. Sing songs with Elmo, Abby, Cookie Monster and Grover. Learn about friendship, patience and sharing with Bert and Ernie.”
- Circle Round – “Created and produced by parents of young children, WBUR’s Circle Round is a podcast that adapts carefully-selected folktales from around the world into sound- and music-rich radio plays for kids ages 4 to 10.”
- Story Pirates – “Story Pirates is a group of world-class actors, comedians, improvisers and musicians who adapt stories written by kids into sketch comedy and musical theater.” Great for older kids too.
Free Printable Coloring Pages:
- Coloring Home: https://coloringhome.com/
- Super Coloring: http://www.supercoloring.com/
- Crayola: https://www.crayola.com/featured/free-coloring-pages/
- Every Child a Reader: https://everychildareader.net/cbw/coloringpages- 2020/?fbclid=IwAR0VPHJ064rQAXqRFLzWHZkiEpxm_p- ia4FXnhIVqh3T8R5uSV5qIsJYYZs
- Coloring 4 Kids: http://coloring-4kids.com/
Virtual Museum Tours: Museums world-wide offer virtual tours. Google Arts and Culture also offers “Street View” tours of many museums.
- Blarney Castle (Cork, Ireland): https://www.virtualvisittours.com/blarney-castle/
- Dali Museum (St. Petersberg, Florida, USA): https://thedali.org/virtual-tour/
- Guggenheim Museum & Foundation (New York, USA): https://artsandculture.google.com/streetview/solomon-r-guggenheim-museum- interior-streetview/jAHfbv3JGM2KaQ?hl=en&sv_lng=- 73.95902634325634&sv_lat=40.78285751667664&sv_h=30.75703204567916&s v_p=0.06928383072430222&sv_pid=MfnUmHRyOSzMtY3vtYU05g&sv_z=0.964 5743015259166
- Louvre (Paris, France): https://www.louvre.fr/en/visites-en-ligne
- National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C., USA): https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/national-gallery-of-art-washington- dc?hl=en
- National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico City, Mexico): https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-national-museum-of-anthropology- mexico-city-ziko-van-dijk-wikimedia-commons/bAGSHRdlzSRcdQ?hl=en
- National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Gwacheon-si, South Korea): https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/national-museum-of-modern- and-contemporary-art-korea?hl=en
- Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam, Netherlands): https://artsandculture.google.com/streetview/rijksmuseum/iwH5aYGoPwSf7g?hl= en&sv_lng=4.885283712508563&sv_lat=52.35984312584405&sv_h=311.16998 75145569&sv_p=- 5.924133903625474&sv_pid=fOVcUXQW2wpRf33iUmxEfg&sv_z=1
Live Streaming from Aquariums and Zoos:
- Monterey Bay Aquarium: https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/live-cams
- National Aquarium: https://www.aqua.org/Experience/live
- Cincinnati Zoo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEKhSO4WiX0&feature=emb_logo
- Explore.org Live Nature Cameras: https://explore.org/livecams
- Georgia Aquarium: https://www.georgiaaquarium.org/webcam/ocean-voyager/
- Houston Zoo: https://www.houstonzoo.org/explore/webcams/
- San Diego Zoo: https://zoo.sandiegozoo.org/
- Smithsonian National Zoo Panda Cam: https://nationalzoo.si.edu/webcams/panda-cam
- Wildearth South Africa, Live Streaming Safari: https://www.twitch.tv/wildearth